So, apparently, the department of justice keeps statistics on the number of homicides throughout the year. Apparently, in 2001, there were around 6/100,000 citizens. Going with roughly 290 mill citizens, that’s 2,900*6 = ~17,400, an increase of about 1,500 over the prior year. (though it’s hard to tell how much of that might be due to rounding error). Canada, otoh, roughly 30 mill citizens. about 540 homicides. So, more than a 1/10 of our population, less than 1/30 of the homicides. thus, more than 3 times as likely to get killed in the US (note your chances are still pretty piddling here, especially if you’re a white woman).
Healthcare related mortality might provide another fascinating axis to examine at some later point.
Minutes basically finished. Let me tell you how much I hate documenting exchanges between politicians. =)
[Ooooo, even more interesting, suicide + murder rates across a selection of nations, mostly industrialized.]
> “(note your chances are still pretty piddling here, especially if you’re a white woman).”
You’d never believe that, based on our news. It seems like all the murders that ever get reported are the ones that involve attractive young white women as the victims… funny how that works.
As long as people have easy access to guns there’s going to be more homicides in the US than most other places.
I’m not sure that’s entirely true. There are many other ways to kill people. I have to wonder how many people would still kill by different means, if there were no easy access guns. It’s a good point, but it strikes me as too narrowly focused on problem definition.
That said, I am in favor of gun control, and think it would help. I’m not sure I’m in favor of forbidding all access to firearms.